The present disclosure relates to self-locomotion training systems and methods having the capability of applying resistance to a trainee during the act of self-locomotion. More specifically, according to the present disclosure, the self-locomotion may be in the form of walking, running, hopping, skipping, shuffling, crawling, or any other form of moving one's body from one point to another point. The system may provide resistance to the movement of multiple body parts of the trainee during the act of self-locomotion in order to train multiple muscle groups engaged during such activity.
The desire to push athletic performance to new heights is a common goal for most every trainee—for example, acceleration and top end speed as it relates to running. It has been discovered that a trainee's ability to generate force (or power) and apply that force to the supporting surface can be improved more effectively for the purposes of increasing running speed if the trainee can train with resistive loads at relatively high velocities. Currently there is no training system or method that can apply fixed or programmable loads simultaneously to the drive phase (quad, glut and calf muscles) and swing phase (hip flexor muscles) of the act of self-locomotion (e.g., running) over a large range of velocities for extended distances. Furthermore there is no system that can apply simultaneous loads to the muscles involved with the drive phase and swing phase plus arm drive of self-locomotion while a trainee moves over a surface for extended distances. The present disclosure provides systems and methods for advanced and efficient training to improve the trainee's ability move from one point to another during the act of self-locomotion, including for example, the ability to run faster over any prescribed distance.
The present disclosure provides systems and methods for applying one or more resistance loads to a trainee while self-locomoting without distance limitations. The present disclosure provides systems and methods for controlling the applied resistance to the trainee so that the resistance is stable and does not increase as a function of the distance travelled by the trainee. Additional embodiments of the present disclosure include mechanical or electromechanical means described herein to enable the trainee to selectively maintain or alter applied resistance levels at any point along the trainee's training path. The disclosure also provides the ability to apply selectable resistive loads to the trainee during the running motion for extended to infinite running distances. The disclosure further enables resistive loads to be applied uniquely to multiple portions of the trainee's body to facilitate strength development and thereby improve running speed. The disclosure also provides the ability to apply resistance to the drive phase (ground contact), swing phase (foot is airborne) and arm (push/pull phase) for extended to infinite running distances. The disclosure provides the ability to accurately control the applied resistance independent of the trainee's acceleration or velocity. The disclosure also includes means to apply resistive loads independent of the mass of the major system component. Minimizing the mass of the invention is desirable so a trainee may accelerate against the applied resistance while not having to overcome excessive inertia that would be present if the system components relied on mass to generate resistive loads. In some embodiments, the disclosure utilizes an electronic drive system so that the mass of the system would not be relevant to the trainee since the electronic drive system could be programed to compensate for the mass of the system when the trainee accelerates so that only the desired training resistance is applied to the trainee. Other embodiments may use a weighted mobile training module that slides on the supporting surface or may include wheels supporting the mobile training module to facilitate movement across the supporting surface. The mobile training module may be tethered to the trainee who pulls the mobile training module over the supporting surface such as the ground. Resistance modules containing elastic bands or other resistance means can be attached to the mobile training module while the elastic tethers exiting the resistance modules can be attached to the hands, ankles, waist and thighs of the trainee. Since the mobile training module containing the elastic resistance modules will shadow the trainee, the absolute distance between the trainee and mobile training module will not increase and the elastic tethers will be stretched and contracted within a predefined length (such as stride length) and thus apply a load that is stable and independent of distance travelled by the trainee.
The present disclosure eliminates the deficiencies of other systems that use elastic cords for providing resistance to a trainee. Such systems include significant deficiencies in loading a trainee that is walking or running in the opposite direction of the applied resistance. First, referencing FIG. 3, consider the training configuration with fixed length elastic bands 40-43 attached to a trainee, each with one end anchored to structure S. The band configuration and attachment points on the trainee in FIG. 3 will load the drive and swing phases of the walking and running motion of the trainee. However, due to the fixed length of the elastic bands the trainee will only be able to take a few steps before the bands reach their stretching limit and applied resistance becomes so great that the rainee can no longer walk or run with proper form. FIG. 1 shows a typical resistance curve for a prior art system shown in FIG. 3 or FIG. 4. Note graph (E) in FIG. 1. As the trainee runs and the elastic bands are stretched as a function of distance, the force required to stretch the elastic bands will increase exponentially as a function of distance. Relating the resistance profile of FIG. 1 to FIG. 3, as the trainee moves away from structure S, the elastic bands 40-43 will stretch and the applied resistance will increase with each stride. After a few strides the resistance will increase exponentially and eventually the elastic bands will stop stretching applying so much resistance that the trainee can no longer move away from structure S. Obviously such a training configuration to load muscles while walking or running particularly at high speeds is not practical or effective because the trainee's acceleration and running process will be prematurely stopped by the resistance applied by the fully or near fully stretched elastic bands long before the trainee reaches top speed, which is typically at 30 to 40 yards for humans. Simply increasing the length of elastic bands 40-43 to train for a greater distance does not provide a practical solution for many reasons. First, the trainee would have to position himself at a distance from structure S that would be slightly farther than the length of the longer elastic bands so that the bands would be taught and begin applying resistance. For example, if the Trainee decided to use 100 foot long elastic bands they would have to position themselves more than 100 feet away from structure S before the slack in the 100 foot bands would be taken up allowing the bands to become taught and apply resistance. Now 100 feet of space is required before the trainee can take a single step with applied training resistance. Secondly, the increased mass of the 100 foot bands lying between the trainee and structure S would have significant weight and would both severely restrict the natural running movement of a trainee's feet and overall balance and stability when running particularly at high speeds.
Referencing FIG. 4 and FIG. 5, advanced mechanisms using elastic bands to load the drive phases and swing phases have been developed which contain the mass of elongated bands on pulley systems within a module M. Such mechanisms can route multiple long elastic bands (30 feet or longer) on pulleys internal to module M and preload the elastic bands so the elastic bands are taught as soon as they emerge from module M. The elastic bands may apply resistance to a trainee within a foot of the module M and continue to apply a relatively constant resistance out to distances of approximately 120 feet. However, such devices also have distance limitations once the trainee reaches a certain distance from the module M. As the trainee accelerates away from module M increasing distance D, the force applied to the trainee will eventually increase exponentially causing the trainee to become destabilized and forced to stop abruptly.
The present disclosure includes multiple embodiments. One of the embodiments described herein comprises a mobile training module that is towed by the trainee. The mobile training module may include up to six retractable elastic tethers for connecting to the trainee for applying load to the trainee during the act of self-locomotion such as running. The mass/weight of the towed mobile training module is designed such that it may be light weight (less than 10 pounds) but includes the ability to generate resistance loading to the trainee of a magnitude that is many multiples of the weight of the module. A major advantage to high velocity training using elastic bands is the relatively light weight of the elastic bands. Since the elastic bands have relatively small mass, a trainee can accelerate very quickly working against elastic resistive loads having resistance to mass ratios that may exceed 200:1 as compared to resistive loads generated by dead weight such as steel weights whose resistance to mass ratio is 1:1.
One embodiment of the present disclosure may include a mobile training module and relatively short elastic bands ranging from 2 to 10 feet per band. The mobile training module may be coupled to the ground by one or two portable coupling belts or fixed tracks/guides that are laid out parallel to one another to define a training path. The coupling belts may be anchored to the ground. One to six elastic tethers emanating from the mobile training module are connected to the Trainee by any suitable means such as harnesses, wrist bands, ankle bands or the like. The force required to pull the mobile training module which is coupled to and guided by the coupling belts or coupling tracks may be controlled by mechanical and/or electronic means within the mobile training module. Once the trainee sets the resistance level or force to pull the mobile training module manually or by electronic programming and connects the elastic tethers to various points on their body, the trainee can accelerate while connected to the mobile training module which, via mechanical coupling to the coupling tracks or belts, generates the desired resistance which is transferred to the trainee through the tethers.
Some advantages of the present disclosure over the prior art include capability to apply a resistance profile as depicted in FIG. 2 whereby as graph (A) indicates, the magnitude of applied resistance can be kept constant independent of velocity or distance traveled by the trainee. Additionally as graph (B) indicates, the mobile training module may also provide a variable resistance independent of the velocity or distance traveled by the trainee.
To help understand why the proposed invention presents a novel exercise methodology for improved speed development and general human loco motion it will first be helpful to understand and become familiar with the four most common training methods utilized now among athletes to increase speed. These four methods involve:                a) pulling or pushing weighted mobile training modules;        b) tying the distal ends of a long elastic band to the waist of two trainees, having the Trainees separate until the elastic band provides the desired training load and then have one Trainee run away from the other and the second trainee tries to maintain a fixed separation to keep the desired load applied to the lead trainee;        c) running with a parachute to utilize wind resistance; and        d) the Wehrell “Lateral Training System and Method” as described in U.S. application Ser. No. 12/155,747.        Each of the identified prior art speed training methods (a-d) have major drawbacks that reduce the efficiency of strength development for the purposes of increasing athletic speed.        
The drawbacks of the prior art include;                1) The current arts a-c mentioned only train (overload) muscles associated with the drive phase where the Trainee's foot is in contact with the ground and pushing—mainly the quad, gluts and calf. The muscles that are used to propel the leg through the air to the next step when it breaks contact with the ground are not overloaded with any training resistance with methods a-c. These untrained muscles include the hip flexors, adductors and abductors all of which happen to be critical for speed performance and thus the strength of these three muscle groups is highly relevant for improving speed.        2) With method (a) high training velocities are rarely achieved because of the significant mass of the mobile training modules which restrict sports specific acceleration and maximum training speeds to about 5 miles per hour on average for weighted mobile training modules. Thus, weighted mobile training module training velocities are significantly less than un-resisted maximum running speeds of 24 to 27 miles per hour for professional sprinters. It has been shown that strength gains from such low velocity speed training exercises (5 mph) will not manifest themselves effectively at higher velocities (15+ mph) where increased power output is necessary to improve top end (maximum) speed.        3) Method (b) requires two people to train with an elastic tether tied between both Trainees. This training method relies on the trailing training partner to be similarly conditioned and have similar speed performance capabilities. Additionally the trailing training partner must match training speeds, maintain spatial relationship and run durations with the lead runner. This makes setting training resistance highly unpredictable in addition to presenting higher probabilities of injury to the Trainees, specifically the trailing trainee who often becomes destabilized trying to maintain balance with the elastic tether pulling on them at high running velocities.        4) Training effectively to improve explosive movement and acceleration requires applying a useful load when movement is first initiated by muscular forces. The parachutes used in method (c) cannot apply any useful load when motion is first initiated by muscular force because velocity is zero and hence wind speed acting on the parachute is zero and there is no drag to generate a force at the instant the Trainee begin to accelerate which is one of the most critical points requiring loading when speed training. Additionally training load is directly proportional to running speed or wind velocity acting on the parachute. Any given Trainee may not be able to apply the desired training loads if they cannot achieve the required running velocity resulting in the required wind speed acting on the parachute to generate said desired force.        5) Method (d) described by the Wehrell “Lateral Training Apparatus” Invention is the only and most advanced form of simultaneous leg drive and swing phase loading of the four methods but the distance for which the Trainee can accelerate and try to achieve maximum running speeds is limited by the length of the elastic bands and the physical limitations of the mechanical system which handles the elastic bands. As the Trainee's distance from the apparatus increases there is still no way to maintain a constant load within tight tolerances especially when the Trainee reaches the stretch limitations of the elastic members at which point the resistance will increase exponentially as a function of distance. Once the magnitude of applied resistance surpasses a level specific to each Trainee, their running form and ability to run at all will be severely compromised and forward motion will be abruptly stopped.        
The present disclosure obviates the drawbacks of the prior art.